The Hunter Nin
by sally999
Summary: Abandoned by everyone but Naruto, Sakura joins the Hunters, where shinobi go to die. Yet her ability to survive and adapt to anything brings her to the attention of the Akatsuki. The only one strong enough to bring her in may yet be the one to show her that to adapt and survive is not all that life has left for her. Angsty stoicism.
1. Chapter 1

AN: Not mine, of course, blah blah.

Love reviews, tho.

CH1

Hunter nin. The most feared shinobi in all of the five villages. Ghosts in every sense of the word.

Hunter nin actually started as specialized ANBU that were primarily clans that had one or more heightened sense by nature. The Inuzukas, for example. However, the solitary nature of the hunter nin made it inevitable that their selection process would become darker. Hunter nin only stepped foot inside their respective village when they had a missing nin to bring back; 'dead or alive' was just a detail to check off on their reports. They only worked in pairs and never knew their partner. Their masks only bore the sign of their village, and were plain black faces unlike the white ANBU masks, which oftentimes featured animals. They also had a language all their own that was a complicated system of hand signals, or whistles if sound was absolutely necessary. By hunter law, they never actually spoke, as a voice was unique to a person and could therefore be used as an identity. This also served to further re-enforce the alienation of the partners from each other.

The choice to become a hunter nin was essentially suicide. The mandatory amount of time to serve was five years. If one lived that long, and if they somehow overcame the massive personal issues that prompted them to enlist in the first place, then they were allowed back into ANBU. Under no circumstances would they ever be allowed back to the normal shinobi ranks, as being a hunter nin tended to have repercussions more severe than whatever drove them to being a hunter in the first place. _No one_ left the hunting unit on the closer side to sane and able to interact with people; it had just been too long since they had even spoken the written word. Even with living alongside a partner for five years, they ate alone, slept alone, and ultimately knew no more about their partner than the first time they laid eyes on them. Besides the ability to fight as a unit, comradery was severely discouraged.

People wanted to become hunters to get away from people, not accumulate another precious person.

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In order to be accepted as a hunter nin, you merely had to walk into ANBU, meet with the head interrogator, and lay all your demons bare to him. The details would be sealed in your file, along with a recommendation for either a psych evaluation before being integrated into ANBU, or hunter nin status. Depending on the reasons given, a short, medium, or long term partner would be assigned.

Those wanting to opt out of life but didn't want the dishonor of committing suicide were paired with another like-minded and assigned only S-Class missing nins. They were the ones deemed unable to be rehabilitated for various reasons, and were given all that life had left to offer: an honorable death.

Long term partners were the truly unfortunate. They had a drive to live, were successful in their fields, and had simply had so much bad luck in life that they wanted nothing more than to live out the rest of lives productively, but in solitude. Some had lost their entire families, or perhaps all their friends to combat, or had been deserted by a lover. The reasons were endless, but the result was that human interaction had become integrally deemed not worth the pain in their minds. All decisions made in personal relationships are based on a pro/con scale. Life had taught these individuals that the cons were far more numerous than the pros, and therefore were not worth investing in. No, they were actually something to be avoided in the interest of self-preservation. These individuals were ideal to have a partner, as they would shun all personal contact, and yet would be perfectly content to stay away from the village looking for nins for the rest of their life. It would give them a sense of peace that they had been lacking. These partnerships tended to live the longest, and many simply died out in the field of old age, choosing to hunt until they either died naturally or went up against a younger target that defeated them.

The one percent were the medium terms. These rare nins would complete their five years and come to terms with their own demons themselves. Or would simply decide that living in the village did provide more pros than cons when compared to the alternative. These would be integrated back into ANBU, where they would spend the rest of their lives. Special arrangements were made for these few, as often times the spoken word was permanently lost to them. They were given special housing to prevent the possibility of nosy neighbors, or civilians, or regular shinobi who would quickly realize something was amiss. They were the most-often sent into the field, as their survival skills were second to none, and they had been hardened by years without the security of a village or beloved teammates to watch their back. They were able to live somewhat normal lives, and were even considered elites among the ANBU.

But they were, after all, the exception.

For most, the hunters were for the shinobi without hope.

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The last six months has been almost more than she could bear. Naruto had realized his dream of being the next Hokage. What neither of them realized was that all of his free time was spent learning the endless skills he needed to properly run a village. She and Naruto both had fought tooth and nail to spend even a few minutes together when they could, but with his exhaustive schedule and the sheer number of hours she was having to put into training new medics at the hospital, there was nothing they could do. They weren't even passing each other on the street anymore, as they lived in different directions in town.

She missed her best friend.

Speaking of best friend, she and Ino hadn't been speaking for a while. Yet again Ino had decided to lecture her on the life experiences she was missing out on by not having a man, whether it be a boyfriend or even a fling. It was the one subject that they honestly, truly disagreed on. Sakura was just not built to have a fling. She needed to have trust in someone before letting them get physically close, and the few men she had dated, hadn't the patience to wait for it when there were a hundred others like Ino, who just asked that you buy their drinks. And again, with her work load at the hospital, she barely had time to be lonely period, much less have physical urges.

It had been one day that was just six hours to long, with students who just didn't seem to appreciate the opportunity they were being given by having her as their instructor, then realizing that she had forgotten to get groceries when all the stores were closed. So as she was doing her laundry at two in the morning because she literally had nothing to wear to work the next day, her attention was drawn from her growling and aching stomach to a drunk Ino who had somehow found her in the basement. Now, she was due back to work in less than five hours, hadn't eaten since that morning, hadn't slept in much, much longer, and being lectured by her drunk friend that smelled of alleyway and sex was just more than she could take.

And, oh, how she tried to shut down the conversation! Tried to drag her back up to her apartment, because she KNEW that the second she could get Ino on the couch, she would be unconscious. But instead she got a lecture about being an old maid that was quite frankly not fun to talk to on the few occasions she had time, which lately had been never, and what was the point in being her friend anyway if she continued to hide from life in the hospital instead of living, and just because Sasuke turned out to be a real bastard and broke her heart doesn't mean she had to be some crazy cat lady bitch that was too chicken-shit to ever even get rid of her v-card, which apparently **_everyone_** still knew she had and was made fun of a lot behind her back, and Ino was quite frankly getting tired of defending her friend who was never there to be a friend anymore, and did she mention that if she went out and got laid that she would haven't to defend her crazy cat lady bitch friend because she wouldn't be one in the first place because Kami! Sakura just wasn't going to bring down her social status from queen of gossip to gossip victim if she had anything to say about it and she was becoming an embarrassment and she _couldn't take it anymore!_

The screaming match that ensued brought the apartment manager down with threats of eviction if he ever had a noise complaint about Sakura again, and a teary Ino that promptly fled, stumbling back and forth against the hallway walls as she went.

So the next day Sakura had gone to see her friend, because when friends had fights you talked things out and it got better, because that was just the way things are supposed to go. You have fights, you talk thru it, and life goes on.

And yet the look of weary resignation on Ino's face when she walked into the flower shop made a chill go down her spine. She could honestly say that when Ino had sighed and admitted that she just didn't see the point to being her friend any more, that Sakura had nothing to give and was only taking from her, that she never saw it coming. She had expected apologies on both sides, even if she hadn't drunkenly yelled at her friend at two in the morning and let it escalate to the point that by the time the apartment manager was done yelling at the both of them she had to be at her hospital shift in an hour and a half and therefore went two days without sleep. She hadn't expected to walk out being broken up with by her friend she had known her entire life. The look on Ino's face had clearly told her that no amount of tears or words would change her mind, so she had just taken a last look to memorize her face, and fled.

That incident was directly responsible for the circumstances that finally broke her: Kakashi.

Word had gotten around that Ino and Sakura had 'divorced', and it led to her former teacher stopping by on her dinner break on one of her standard 16-hour shifts to see if she was ok. One dinner became many, and dinners turned into walking her home as well, then sometimes talking so late into the night that he would crash on her couch and walk her to work at dawn. It was never intentional, but he seemed to fill the empty little spot Ino had created, and for a while she was happy. He seemed to be happier, as well. They learned that their humor matched, that they both secretly enjoyed ramen but would never let Naruto know, and that they both craved companionship.

As the calendar marked down almost five months that Kakashi had integrated himself into her life, she began to realize that she no longer saw him as her former teacher, but someone she could see spending her life with. The trust had always been there, even when there had been months at a time when they never saw each other, so the thought came to her one day that she saw him as someone she felt comfortable sharing herself with physically.

It smacked her out of the blue as she was sitting on her couch and reading yet another medical journal, that her back was to the arm of her couch, her knees were in his lap, and she felt content. His trusty Icha Icha was in his left hand, the elbow of which was resting halfway up her thighs, and his right hand was absentmindedly rubbing her feet. It was familiar, and automatic to them both, and reeked of lovers who had been together for a while. That realization had led her to stare in shock at his face until he took notice.

That had been the first time they had made out on her couch.

The long hours that she put in the hospital didn't seem to matter anymore, because she was _finally ready._ She knew that when he wanted, she would give, and she honestly couldn't wait.

Six months into her new relationship with Kakashi, he met her for dinner as he had so many other times, and yet he was different from the moment he walked into the door of her office. She had a brief flashback to the look on Ino's face, but she refused to believe it was a premonition. When she had stood up so they could go to the cafeteria as they always had, he had asked her to sit back down. She told herself she had heartburn because she was so hungry, that was why her stomach felt like lead. And she told herself it didn't matter when he explained that he had met someone. That he was tired of always being the one to go to her house, get her to go for meals, stay with her on her couch because she didn't have time to go to his place that was across town close to where Naruto lived. He felt like he was always the one injecting life into her, that he thought she should seriously consider lightening her work load, because he wasn't pulling the shifts she was but it was exhausting him all the same.

And then he told her.

He been at the bar with his buddies and met a kunoichi who was so full of life and was everything that they both weren't, and he loved spending time with her because she made him feel younger with her outlook on life.

And he had slept with her that night, after knowing her for a few hours.

Now, to be fair, they had made out a couple of times, but they hadn't ever agreed that they were dating. In retrospect, she could see how she letting him set the pace could be construed as not being interested, but apparently as **everyone** knew she was a virgin it wasn't a big leap that she was new to relationships. She had big hopes that he was going to stick around and they would be happy for the rest of whatever, but she apparently and truly only brought people down.

They both knew this was him trying to be gentle in letting her down, but it was more than her pride could bear when he promised that they could still have dinner together every once in a while. She had politely declined, citing her busy schedule because she would now be able to work on her breaks and would finally have time to devote to a few research projects she had been putting off. Not to mention, she didn't feel it appropriate spending time with someone she had feelings for when he was dating someone else, and if she had been the other woman, wouldn't want her man to spend time with a woman that had feelings for him. He had paled slightly when she calmly explained that to him, but Sakura assured him that she would make sure to keep herself busy until those feelings went away; she would call him when she felt ready and to please leave her be until then. Then she had most politely escorted him to her door and shut it quietly in his face.

She watched her feet take her back to her desk, stared at the paperwork in front of her for a moment, and took up her pen to work thru her dinner break. The pain she felt from hunger was something she enjoyed, as it felt better than the gaping hole in her chest.

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It had been three weeks since that horrible evening and so much had changed. She had banned Kakashi from her office (security-enforced a few times until he got the hint), and true to her word spent all her time at the hospital. She had known with a grief she thought herself too young to feel, that he truly wouldn't try too hard to keep contact with her, and he hadn't. Three days was all the worth she had to him. Sakura couldn't even hold it against him, because she was the one who asked that he leave her alone until she was ready.

And she now had no one.

She went home once a week to pay her bills, which coincidentally were barely anything now that she wasn't there, and to do laundry. But even laundry soon was something she did at the hospital in their big commercial washers, as the laundry room at her apartment building was where her life had taken its' first mortal hit. And her office had been the death blow. There was nowhere safe for her anymore. Everything caused her pain.

Her days were filled with two-sentence small talk with her patients, as they were there for their health, not conversation, and hours of silence spent in the labs. Sakura didn't actually have any research to do, but it was easy to go down to one of the many labs and simply stare at a wall and carefully think about nothing for a few hours. It became meditation, and it soon replaced her sleep.

She began forging her time cards so the Powers didn't realize she truly never left at all, and she found places to hide during her official 'downtime'. It was during one of her meditation sessions that she had an epiphany. Normally her meditation time was blessedly empty of all thought, which was why she was able to forgo sleep. But this time a single thought seemed to flash in neon lights across her sight out of nowhere.

 _You are truly serving no purpose here_. She knew it only a matter of time before Kakashi told Naruto what was going on, and then Tsunade would know within minutes after that. She needed a resolution to her monotonous days of pain and healing; she felt like a robot out of place amongst life.

 _The hunter nins._

And the thought was perfect. It was exactly what she needed in every aspect.

It was settled.


	2. Chapter 2

a/n: not mine, blah blah.

Ch 2

When it came to prospective hunters, Ibiki was always available. They weren't as common as one might think, so they were always given priority, especially as there was extensive training to be completed before they were paired up and sent out.

While hunters tended to be older, or people who had been orphaned at a young age and couldn't socialize properly, he still never would have believed the Hokage's apprentice would be one knocking on his door. Knowing who she was and who she was connected to, he was prepared to flat out order a psych eval and alert **everyone** that their favorite medic was in crisis. The look on her face when she walked in made him pause, however. As she carefully outlined the reasons that she believed no one would care that she was gone, and how she had gotten to that desolate point, he had to admit she had done a thorough job of unknowingly alienating herself. While the approval of hunter nins was solely under his jurisdiction due to the dire mental state that necessitated that desire, his first reaction had been to immediately contact the Hokage. This was, after all, her apprentice. But after listening to her, it seemed that once Sakura's skill level had become enough to power its' own momentum, the Hokage had let her responsibilities to the village once again take precedent over her largely self-sufficient student. Understandable, but still contributing to the overall depressing picture.

To be frank, she was the poster child for hunter nins.

There was really no choice on his part; he couldn't let a shinobi with such dead eyes do anything but what was her only option left. And that was to live her life with purpose in solitude. Solitude would give her the peace she was so obviously craving, and being surrounded by people with hope and lives and dreams was killing her spirit. Self-preservation had brought her to him; he could only honor that.

"Before we start your training, there are two choices you must make. One: is there anyone you would like to write a farewell to? Two: upon your death, do you want anyone to be notified, not notified, or for them to have the choice themselves?"

His voice momentarily caught her attention. She could tell it had been altered by the extensive scar tissue on his neck. It was unnaturally deep and sounded like he had been drinking sake all his life. It was harsh and monotone. It was everything she wanted to be, because it was how she felt.

"I have one person to write to, and I won't need to notify him, because he'll know when he's the new Hokage."

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 _Dear Naruto,_

 _You are the one person that never willfully left me, and I will always remember that._

 _I do this for me. For peace of mind._

 _Not because you aren't enough._

 _I will not be there on the day you become Hokage in body, but I will be there in spirit. Because I know I will always be in your heart. You are going to be a good Hokage, and I am already so, so proud of you._

 _Don't worry, I am not a short timer. I am finally going to be what I have always been._

 _Alone._

 _It is something I take comfort in, because everything in this world except for you has done nothing but hurt me. I will be much safer out here. Where things are simple and true._

 _Who knows?_

 _Maybe I'll miss you so much that I might even come back._

 _You are the only reason I would._

 _You are the brother of my heart. And I love you always._

 _Sakura_

 _p.s. you are obviously the only person that I am writing to. Shishou will be notified of my status, but I do not think anyone else will miss me, except for the hospital. If someone does ask, I leave it up to your discretion, as I have said the only goodbye that matters to me._

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It would be almost ten months later that Kakashi would ask Naruto if he knew how Sakura-chan was doing. Naruto, having known about the time they had spent together up until Kakashi's new girlfriend, had long since put two and two together and realized that Sakura considered Kakashi to be someone who intentionally left her. He had also found out about the fight she had with Ino.

He had made it his business to figure out how his best friend in the shinobi nations had been driven to become a hunter nin, one of the Hopeless, as they were casually called.

It was a knee-jerk reaction for his eyes to flash red with the righteous anger he felt on his 'sister's' behalf, and though he quickly got it under control, Kakashi saw it and took a reflexive step back. Naruto quickly schooled his expression and carefully gave a monotone response before turning to leave.

"Sakura- _chan_ 's been a Hopeless for almost a year now."

He saw Kakashi's eye widen as he turned, and was unsurprised when his arm was harshly pulled to turn him back around to face Kakashi.

"How do you know she's a hunter?" he demanded. Naruto gave a laugh that was cruel and desolate and angry and **everything** that he by nature was not. He took a firm step closer so that his crystalline blue eyes could bore into Kakashi's single orb.

"I am the only person who hasn't chosen to abandon her. I am the only one Sakura- _chan_ wrote to tell me she was becoming a hunter. She hasn't made any arrangements to notify anyone upon her death, because as Hokage I will already know. And the sad part is that she told me she intends to be a lifer. But Kakashi-sensei?" he paused and took a step back, trying to keep his face impassive.

"They've designated her a short-timer."

Kakashi gasped and leaned against the wall of the building behind him.

Short-timers were given two years tops, on average. And they were assigned that status based on their mental state, considered to be a liability if paired with a lifer.

Chances were, Sakura would never make it to her five year point; she was a dead woman walking.

Naruto turned and continued down the road, calling over his shoulder as an afterthought, "see ya 'round, _sensei_."


End file.
